Questions to ask College Admissions Staff

By Kris Turner
on June 21, 2017

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Meeting with college admissions staff during a college fair or campus visit is a good way to get your foot in the door at a college or university that you want to attend. Taking the time to talk with the college’s representative shows you’re serious about attending the college or university, but make sure you ask the right questions.

Here’s a list of things that will help you learn more about a college or university while impressing college admissions officials:

Ask about a specific program or academic major. Doing this shows that you’ve already looked into a college or university and want to know more. It also demonstrates that you aren’t simply asking surface questions and that you’re serious about your academic future.

Find out about campus activities. A large part of college life isn’t just classes and studying — it’s the organizations you take part in. Find out if the college or university you’re interested in has an active student government, a newspaper, sports leagues or academic clubs, whatever is of interest to you. Chances are, there’s something you’ll want to take part in and asking about it shows you’re interested in student life.

Inquire about the academic experience. Ask about the difficulty of registering for classes as a freshman, whether first-year classes are taught in large lecture halls or if you can meet with a specific professor. If you’re especially interested in a body of research the college has done, ask to meet with the professor or team that conducted it. This is the time to figure out if you’ll be able to get the education you want. Even if you don’t like the answers you get from the college’s representative, it’ll help you narrow your list of colleges.

Ask if the college releases a freshman survey. Colleges sometimes ask students about their experiences in the form of surveys. If a college has conducted a survey and released the results, ask to see what students said about their freshman year. This can give you a good indication of larger trends among the freshman class and what type of experience you might have.